Hi folks, thanks for visiting my about page. That’s me pictured on the right next to the fascinating Chief Salaton Ole Ntutu. This is my second personal blog. My first blog was hosted at WordPress.com and was primarily about my experiences as a member of the Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary and volunteering with non profits and people making a difference in this world. It was entitled “Reasonable Ideas”. I still cover reasonable ideas but I also cover a gambit of subjects including technology, gadgets, information technology, public speaking and “more”. In the past I had a Podcast about many of these topics and still enjoy having conversations with interesting people.

Stuff I Love:

Being my own Boss

In January of 1997 I founded Managed Solutions. I am your typical entrepreneur and I wear many hats, one I’ve worn for many years is as the virtual CIO of many bay area companies. Effective October of 2013 I changed things up a bit to focus my new opportunities on Computer Integrated Manufacturing Solutions. I still support a number of companies that have been long term clients of mine. They are my work family. In 2016 I decided to take on the role of a US Manufacturing Advocate.

Family and friends in California

From 2005 up until the summer of 2014 I lived with my family in Danville, CA. Danville is about 45 minutes East of San Francisco for those unfamiliar with the Bay Area. In the summer of 2014 we sold our house and departed on a epic workation and upon returning bid farewell to Danville. We are now residents of El Dorado Hills, about 30 minutes east of Sacramento on Highway 50. I enjoy exploring the world through my sons eyes and we’ve had some really amazing adventures.

WordPress

I am pretty fanatical in my support of Word Press, I think it is the best platform for most business websites and personal blogs. Between 2009 and 2014 I have been involved with a fair amount of Word Press development and now (mostly) hosting.

Photography

I enjoy capturing moments that I can later reference and re-enjoy those experiences. Here is one of my personal favorites:

Nature and the Outdoors

I’ve always enjoyed being out and about in nature. Whether I am camping, hiking, mountain biking, off-roading, or simply sitting back and looking at the vast expanses of natural beauty that surrounds us.

Glacier National Park Summer 2016

Off Road Activities

Spending some of my formative years in Bonita, CA with access to countless miles of trails I learned at a young age to enjoy motorcycles and off road activities. These days I don’t spend much time in the dirt, but rarely does a week go by where I don’t think about it. Right now I own a Jeep Grand Cherokee that is well setup for wheeling.

In particular being close enough to day trip to serious off road adventures and snow has been a huge bonus to being 90 minutes from Lake Tahoe.

Somewhere off M.E.T.

Maker

In recent years I have done a pretty deep dive into the world of electronics, Arduino, Raspberry Pi and I am currently one of (few) forty something students taking Mechatronics classes for fun and personal growth. I live the dream many nights in my workshop tooling with Arduino, Raspberry Pi and even work related electronics. Had I recognized how much I enjoyed building things years ago, I very well may have been manufacturing products today. As it is, being late to this party, I am developing some products that extend capabilities of the software I distribute to the precision manufacturing industry.

One of my personal projects, Smart phone controlled entertainment system power control